Political Spillovers of Workplace Democracy in Germany

Jirjahn, Uwe; Le, Thi

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4178920

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Thus, works councils indeed have an incentive to promote fairness and solidarity. Moreover, the presence of a works council fosters communication among workers (Jirjahn & Le, 2023a). For example, the works council holds regular works meetings with the whole workforce to report about its activities and to discuss topics such as social policy, equal opportunities and workplace integration.…”

Section: Background Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigrants and trade union membership: Does integration into society and workplace play a moderating role?

Jima Bedaso,

Jirjahn

2023

Brit J Industrial Rel

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We hypothesize that incomplete integration into the workplace and society implies that immigrants are less likely to be union members than natives. Incomplete integration makes the usual mechanism for overcoming the collective action problem less effective. Our empirical analysis with data from the Socio‐Economic Panel confirms a unionization gap for first‐generation immigrants in Germany. Importantly, using the presence of a works council as an indicator of workplace integration and contacts with Germans as an indicator of integration into society, the analysis shows that the immigrant‐native gap in union membership is heterogeneous. The gap is smaller for immigrants working in firms with a works council and having social contacts with Germans. Our analysis also confirms that the gap is decreasing in the years since arrival in Germany.

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Section: Background Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigrants and trade union membership: Does integration into society and workplace play a moderating role?

Jima Bedaso,

Jirjahn

2023

Brit J Industrial Rel

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“…Works councils and neo-corporatist institutions are well-known institutional examples. This countervailing process limited the disruptive social effects of market liberalism (Hyman 2001(Hyman , 2015Ferreras 2017;Jirjahn and Le 2022).…”

Section: Four Dimensions Of Employer Discretionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employer Discretion: The Role of Collective Agreements in the Liberalization of Industrial Relations

Boumans

2024

ILR Review

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The gradual shift in power relations between organized employers and employees since the 1970s has increasingly affected the functioning of national industrial relations systems. According to a broad literature, the most important of these consequences is an increase in employer discretion. This article tests this claim by performing a longitudinal content analysis on three Dutch collective contracts. It develops an analytical framework based on four dimensions of employer discretion. Results show that although employer discretion did increase on all four dimensions between the mid-1970s and the 2020s, significant temporal and sectoral variation has occurred. In addition, the article argues that a loss of democratic influence by employees intensified the increase of the one-sided decision-making powers of employers, and that the collective contract is being transformed from a joint labor–capital effort to solve workplace problems to a management instrument.

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“…Political spillover theory suggests that participation in the firm's decision making fosters workers' political participation in civic society (Budd 2014, Budd et al 2018, Budd and Lamare 2020, Jirjahn and Le 2022. It can lead to feelings of political effectiveness, the development of political skills, a higher awareness of political issues, and an increased solidarity among workers.…”

Section: The Influence On Workers' Party Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These gender roles involve that political engagement is more of a male than a female characteristics. As suggested by Jirjahn and Le (2022), this makes it difficult for women to develop political interest even when there is a works council in the firm. 5 Of course, in the end, the question of whether there exists a self-selection issue can only be answered empirically.…”

Section: Funding Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%